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Not even a year after Pebble was acquired by Fitbit their watches are already starting to fail. Some have apparent manufacturing defects or quality control issues, while others have suffered too much abuse on the wrists of their owners. What's especially heartbreaking about these photos is that we Pebblers are holding on to our hardware for dear life. Unlike a good mechanical watch, however, these things just aren't built to last.

The first-generation Pebble started shipping in January, 2013; here's what one of those looks like when the buttons fall out.

When a button on their 2016 Pebble 2 wore off, this user switched from using his finger to the tip of a pen, with predictable results.

Swollen batteries are also starting to affect some Pebbles. Here's a 2015 Pebble Time Round with a display panel lifting away from its body.

Here's a photo taken by a not-so-proud owner of a new iPhone 8 Plus in Japan; out of the box the new device's battery had swollen to the point where it was pushing the display panel out of its seating. There are reports of similar defects trickling in from around the world—seven in total so far:

This story on Pocketnow has links to each incident. In a couple of cases the phone's battery was swollen out of the box; in others the swelling occurred after the user's first charge (with original equipment). In the rest the swelling became apparent after a short fall, with no initial signs of damage. There are, at present, no reports of batteries actually exploding.

Apple is said to be investigating the issue, which might prove to be a challenge, as batteries for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are made by three separate manufacturers: LG Chem, Samsung SDI and Simplo Technologies.

Hopefully no one reading this has a swollen battery in their new iPhone; if you do, I'm sure your neighbourhood Apple Store will help you out.

What better way to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving than with a new BlackBerry? Let's just maybe overlook that it was announced in Dubai, and its availability at launch will be limited to that part of the world.

The BlackBerry Motion, known previously by its codename "Krypton", is a touchscreen-only device. Here are the notable specs, courtesy of CrackBerry:

The Motion will be available for purchase in the Middle East before the end of the month, and will apparently be the first BlackBerry sold in the region with dual SIM capabilities. It won't be the world's first dual SIM BB, however; that honour goes to an Indian variant of the KeyOne—at least that's what TechRadar says.

UAE pricing for this mid-range BlackBerry works out to less than $500 USD. I'd expect to see the Motion available in North America before too long, but maybe not the dual SIM version. Just a hunch.

Okay, so with this year's iPhones and Pixels officially made official the year's collection of ultra-premium smartphones is now complete. Or maybe not. If sources are correct, there is one more Android-powered Nokia on the way.

Here's a render of the Nokia 9, in polished blue. The phone is believed to have an edge-to-edge display just like Samsung's Galaxy S8 and S8+. This is what it would look like in polished blue.

And this is what it would look like in polished copper. The back of the device is also 3D glass, so wireless charging will be supported.

The renders are based on this leak of the phone's display panel, along with some rumoured specs:

Aside from not actually being announced yet, there might be additional issues affecting your enjoyment of this high-functioning phone. One would be the limited availability in the Americas (if at all) and another would be Nokia's so-far disappointing policies towards bootloader unlocking and publishing software sources. If the company wants a foothold in this part of the world, catering to the whims of the XDA crowd wouldn't be a bad way to do it. It certainly worked for OnePlus.

Interested in one of the new Pixel phones? Make sure you know what you're getting into; in eliminating the 3.5mm audio jack Google has chosen to ape one of the iPhone's worst features, while providing only minimal protection from water damage. And, like Apple, they've once again taken the high road on pricing, asking $1,289 CAD for their most expensive model. But this is the same story as last year, and in late 2017 appears to be the cost of entry to join the fight in the war on smartphone bezels.

The big differentiator in hardware for Google is again, like last year, going forward with a single rear-facing camera vs. Apple's dual-lens setup. The Pixel 2's camera tech does look promising, and I wouldn't fault anyone making a purchase for that feature alone. As for the fabled "pure Android experience" I'm pretty sure Google gave up on that when they introduced their Now Launcher back in 2013. The exclusive-to-Pixel Google Lens visual search only continues that trend—though it may be available more widely at a later date.

Here's what I found weird about yesterday's event... Granted, I was unable to watch it live and had to settle instead for The Verge's 19-minute supercut after the fact. I was nonetheless surprised at how little overall time was spent on the phones. Your home, it seems, is the new frontier that Amazon, Apple and Google are all simultaneously trying to conquer. I'm personally not so thrilled at the prospect of having an always-listening device in the place where I sleep and sh**, but that's just me.

As for the other gear, I think the Clips camera is an intriguing alternative to GoPro. But I don't have particularly high hopes for the automatic translation feature of the Pixel Buds. Raw technology is no match for the subtle nuance of language.

The watches themselves are nice, but it's time to face facts: having a touchscreen on my wrist is just plain awful. I can't imagine that an Apple Watch is much better, but I've almost no firsthand experience with that platform. As for Android Wear specifically, here's how I've come to my conclusion...

My Pebble is far from perfect. With its low resolution screen, massive bezels and lack of designer watch faces I frequently get smartwatch envy. Making matters worse is that my Pebble been mistaken for an Apple Watch more than once—for an Android fanboy this is entirely unacceptable. Plus, watches are supposed to be round, right? Android Wear is clearly the better choice. I frequently make plans to re-pair one of the three Android watches in my possession, only to back out at the last minute, deciding that it's not worth the hassle.

This past Monday I didn't back out: I re-paired my Nixon Mission and installed the necessary apps to enjoy my morning walk. While I'm out I listen to podcasts, and have to skip through ads more often than I'd like. Here's the first place where Android Wear fails. Once you swipe to the appropriate screen there are software buttons to skip ahead or back, but on a touch screen they just don't work reliably. On a Pebble you can accomplish this without even looking at the watch—provided that you've assigned its built-in music player to a shortcut key. The steps are (1) long-press your shortcut key, (2) press the down button to skip ahead 30 seconds, (3) continue enjoying your podcast.

Notifications on Android Wear are fine unless, like me, you depend on the native reminders built into Google Calendar and Inbox. Dismissing a notification on an Android watch will also remove it from your Android phone. The problem is, dismissing a Google reminder will also mark it as completed. This means that when a reminder pops up on my Android Wear watch I'm basically unable to use it until the reminder goes away on its own. That's some pretty terrible UX right there...

Finally, I don't think it's too much to ask for a $500-plus smartwatch to be always on. The standby screen on my Nixon Mission doesn't really count, as it shows none of the complications selected for my chosen watch face. And even the standby screen sometimes goes dark as well, leaving me with nothing else to look at other than the smudge-fest you see above. This is also problem with Watch OS; as I see more and more Apple Watches on peoples' wrists I can't help but notice their dormant displays, and can't help thinking to myself: "What exactly are you people paying for?"

Again, my Pebble is far from perfect. But as a smartwatch, even a timepiece it's so much better than Android Wear. In fact, I've yet to see anything out there that's as intuitive and downright enjoyable to use.

I imagine that most people think of commercial VPN services as a tool used to pirate content—to spoof one's IP address and avoid nasty emails from HBO lawyers, for example. When, on a whim, I got a deal on a two-year subscription to Private Internet Access little did I know that it would end up coming to my rescue in South Asia.

Here's how that went down.

My way home consisted of two flights—one reward flight from Colombo to Hong Kong and then a connecting flight that I paid for (a different ticket) back to Canada. When I tried to check-in online from Sri Lanka for that second flight here's the message I got from Air Canada's website:

It seems that Air Canada will only let you check in online from a country they actually fly to. Normally this would make perfect sense, but for my specific flight plan it simply wouldn't do.

I downloaded the Android app and set it up to spoof an IP address in Canada—you can tell that the app is working by that key icon in the status bar. And just like that... it still didn't work. Then I remembered that I had granted the Android Chrome browser location permissions. So I switched to Firefox, and...

Huzzah! I was able to check in without issue for my Hong Kong-to-Vancouver flight. In retrospect, it might have been Chrome's location address that stymied me, rather than Air Canada itself. But with a mobile VPN I was covered either way. If you're interested in that two-year subscription deal, see the link directly below.

Both plans are listed as available in-store for new activations only, but I have two friends who are existing Freedom customers and were able to get the $50 plan with upgrades to new Samsung phones (a Note 8 and S8+).

I spent the afternoon doing speed tests with them and came away surprised and impressed with Freedom's LTE network. In an area of the GTA bounded by Woodbine Avenue, Highway 7, Kennedy and the 401 I saw ping times of less than 20 ms, download speeds of well over 60 Mbps and upload speeds in excess of 20 Mbps—numbers that bested Koodo's LTE network on a OnePlus 5. As for call quality we only managed to get one test in and results were less impressive; the call was made in a crowded supermarket, though, which may have had an adverse effect.

Bringing your current device to Freedom's LTE network is a bit tricky. You'll need a phone that supports Band 66, but there's a bit more to it than that. While the new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus seem to work great, OnePlus 5 users are reporting issues with LTE/3G hand-offs. Your safest bet might be to buy your phone direct from Freedom. For the value and quality of data service it seems to be well worth it!

So my grey market LG G6 is already back on its way to Amazon, but before I packed it up I took it with me on an early morning walk through downtown Toronto's Graffiti Alley. As luck would have it I also had with me a OnePlus 5.

The big difference between the two is that the LG's second camera has a fixed focus wide angle lens, while the OnePlus has a telephoto one. For anyone trying to decide which secondary focal length would be more useful, I'm hoping that this quick visual guide will help.

Reference photo of the first subject, taken with the OnePlus 5. Neither LG nor OnePlus seem especially interested in publishing focal length equivalents on their respective spec pages, but other sources cite this primary shooter at the equivalent of 28mm.

The OnePlus 5's telephoto lens, apparently a 36mm equivalent.

And the LG G6's wide angle lens. No focal length is available; LG will only say that it has a 125-degree angle of view.

Our second subject and a new addition to Graffiti Alley, taken with the G6. Focal length is similar to OnePlus, at an equivalent of 29mm.

Back to the 5's telephoto lens, with a really aggressive depth of field software effect—notice how the hair on the right side is out of focus, despite the subject being shot straight on...

Our third and final subject, captured with the primary lens on the OnePlus 5.

OnePlus 5 telephoto lens.

And the wide angle lens on the G6, with bonus photographer cameo!

Though this wasn't meant to be a test of image quality per se, feel free to compare these samples with other graffiti walks I've done with other phones. The photos confirm my personal preference for a second, wide angle lens over a telephoto one. I think the fisheye effect is much more striking than fake software bokeh. What do you think?

Big fan of Amazon Prime over here... The free shipping is fantastic, but what seals the deal for yours truly time and time again is the almost-unbelievably generous return policy on every order. I've sent back memory cards that I've used, cameras that I've taken on trips abroad, even shoes that I've worn outside. And now, it seems, that I'm about to return this LG G6.

Because I'm a Prime Member I honestly didn't put a lot of thought into this purchase—in fact, I bought the phone from my phone while wandering around a mall in Vancouver, a pit stop on the way home from Sri Lanka. I was still considering a smartphone purchase for 2017 and this particular G6 seemed to be compatible with Lineage OS, a good sign that it was a modding-friendly device. I dig the "scared robot" look on the back and, more importantly, prefer the idea of a wide-angle second camera over a telephoto one.

The phone arrived in Toronto shortly after I did. It was only then I started paying attention to its specific model number: H870DS, a phone intended for sale in Hong Kong. This revelation brought with it some good news:

This specific phone supports dual SIMs;
There's 64 GB of storage, an extra 32 GB over North American models;
It'll work in Asia (obviously), but there's also Band 7 LTE for my carrier here.

I took some photos with it earlier this week, but there's not much more I can do with the phone beyond that; no unlockable bootloader, no deal. Kind of a shame, really, as there's a lot to like about the G6.